sortie
Americannoun
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a rapid movement of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers.
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a body of troops involved in such a movement.
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the flying of an airplane on a combat mission.
verb (used without object)
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sorties,
present (3rd person singular)
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sortied,
past participle, past
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sortieing
present participle
noun
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-
(of troops, etc) the act of emerging from a contained or besieged position
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the troops doing this
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an operational flight made by one aircraft
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a short or relatively short return trip
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sortiesimple
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sortiessimple
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have sortiedperfect
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has sortiedperfect
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am sortieingprogressive
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are sortieingprogressive
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is sortieingprogressive
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have been sortieingperfect progressive
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has been sortieingperfect progressive
Past
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sortiedsimple
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had sortiedperfect
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was sortieingprogressive
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were sortieingprogressive
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had been sortieingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sortie
1680–90; < French, noun use of feminine past participle of sortir to go out
Explanation
When a group of soldiers is sent on a specific mission, it's called a sortie. A fighter pilot's sortie might involve a mission to drop a bomb on a target and return to base. When a fighting unit is deployed, heading out on a military mission, you can describe it as a sortie. A sortie might involve troops moving across a field toward their enemy, or a tank advancing on a city held by rebels. Sometimes a sortie involves a sudden surge or attack. In French, the word sortie literally means "a going out," from a Latin root, surgere, or "rise up."
Vocabulary lists containing sortie
National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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This Week in Words: May 11–17, 2019
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the air assault on Iran that began Saturday, American fighter pilots are flying sortie after sortie alongside refueling tankers, reconnaissance planes, bombers, drones and other U.S. aircraft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
Turk’s bad back makes it a brief sortie, but the attempt confirms that their friendship remains fundamentally intact.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026
The jet first landed on 14 June at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala where it was diverted after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian Ocean.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025
But this time the Russian plane wasn’t on a bombing sortie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
And then a trumpet rang from the Citadel, and Denethor at last released the sortie.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
It spent more than 200 days in a combat zone and launched more than 10,000 sorties, according to acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Its air force has been flying thousands of sorties around the clock over Iran.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
Counter-drone units were defending against attacks on coalition bases in Iraq, he added, while UK jets were conducting defensive sorties over the United Arab Emirates.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
Chinese military sorties around Taiwan also fell around 42 percent in January and February compared with the same period last year.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
Above all, his sorties reinforced his belief that the Wooded Island, despite the Japanese temple, should be made as wild as possible.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
The ROK Air Force then sortied its fighters, including about 80 fifth-generation F-35As.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 4, 2022
While his classmates flew long, bitterly cold patrols at the front that winter, young Stalin sortied into Moscow.
From Time Magazine Archive
We had a fraternity office on campus from which we occasionally sortied out to class or, just as often, to the student lounge, where we tried to master the mambo.
From Time Magazine Archive
With an eye on relaxation as well as royalties, some well-established novelists and poets have sortied from their usual literary habitat and invaded the children's book field with happy results.
From Time Magazine Archive
In vain his humour sortied, In vain with spurts of glee Like field-guns on the trenches He raked the crowded benches; My evening print reported No kind of casualty.
From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, October 21, 1914 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
